We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Manned space missions are (for the time being) stupid. They are wasteful, inefficient, and pointless.

It was a great accomplishment, to be sure. Noteworthy. Praiseworthy. Perhaps the greatest technological accomplishment ever. But it's not a failure that we aren't continuing with such missions, which now would be nothing but purposelessness grandeur.

Mr. Rosenstein, What Is the Crime? ... In our country, the crime triggers the assignment of a prosecutor, not the other way around.

Actually, probable cause of a crime. In this case, there was evidence that the Russians were attempting to influence the U.S. election, specifically by infiltrating the Trump campaign.

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It is too debilitating to the governance of the United States, to the pursuit of America’s interests in the world, for us to permit imposing on the presidency the heavy burdens of defending against a criminal investigation unless there is significant evidence that the president has committed a serious crime.

Again, the standard is probable cause, and not necessarily of wrongdoing by the President, but an investigation of "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump".

By the way, as someone who might have information about Russian interference, Trump is an important witness for the investigation. We already know that some campaign officials have lied about what they knew.

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To be clear, if there is probable cause to believe that Donald Trump was criminally complicit in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, he must be investigated, and the nation must resign itself to the compromised administration that entails. But we have never been told, much less shown, that this is the case. It is supposed to be established before the investigation commences.

The investigation was initiated over evidence of possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. His former campaign chair, his former National Security Advisor, and a former foreign policy advisor for the campaign, have already been convicted. A number of Russian agents have been indicted. If that investigation leads to Trump or exonerates Trump, so be it. The investigation was clearly warranted.

Bill Carson: Damn straight! Especially if it keeps monsters like this off the streets!

The lesson is don't lie to the FBI investigating criminal matters or you may be found guilty of a felony.

The usual sentence for a first-time offender is probation, but Papadopoulos was given a prison sentence because the matter was, according to the court, of "profound national importance". In this case, the lie allowed a suspected Russian operative to escape the U.S.

Damn near as profound as the Cuban Missile Crisis, judging by that lengthy sentence! Hell, the Rosenbergs had nothing on the fiendish Papadopoulos!

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The lesson is don't lie to the FBI investigating criminal matters or you may be found guilty of a felony.

Thanks, Sensei! And here I was on a path to lie to the FBI the first damn chance I got, but for God nudging me over to Maggie's Farm this fine morning, where I was treated to the free wisdom of a Marxist robot crossed with a 'Goofus and Gallant' cartoon.

And while we're on the subject of "lessons", any chance of you deriving/proffering any regarding old Julius & Ethel? Like, "The lesson is don't sell your country's atomic secrets to the Russians unless you're born with a rather high dielectric constant". Something sage like that. You can do it.

Zach, I am so happy that you have your Top Secret and above clearance now and that you can keep the rest of us peons in check with the truth.

Don't forget to tell us about the closed door Ohr testimony and the false FISA documents used for the Mueller investigation. There is just so much classified information that you have access to and can give us the straight skinny.

Also, read the inside portion of the DOJ IG report and give us the scoop. That is the one where the DOJ refused to prosecute several FBI agents for lying to the FBI, taking bribes, working with crooks instead of arresting them. Please let us know what really happened.

The investigation was initiated over evidence of possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. His former campaign chair, his former National Security Advisor, and a former foreign policy advisor for the campaign, have already been convicted.

Do you intend to suggest that Manafort, Flynn, and Papadopolous were convicted for anything remotely close to a link with the Russian government? I hope not because that would be deceitful.

...and prepare for a tsunami of gaslighting in reply, all delivered with that faux factualism of extremely selective narrative framing. Although you have to give its programmers props for hanging on as long as they have.

If the penalties had not been called, Serena still would have lost. That 20 year old was beating the stew out of her. But, that's what happens when you get old and fat. I read an article about Arthur Ashe several months ago and it stated when Arthur started playing tennis one of the first things he was told was to never argue with the umpire. This was the 50th anniversary of the US Open and Arthur Ashe won the first US Open. I thought it ironic, considering the spectacle brought upon by Serena.

But possible is grounds for investigation, Zzzzatemypuppy, after which somebody not on your side of the partisan divide gets fourteen days. See? Why, ends justifying means is an entire legal doctrine under the US Constitution.

The Handmaid's Tale is the dog whistle for all women. They cite a story where women are abused and then try to imply it is Trump/Republicans. This is what the left does. They use racism and sexism to divide us and rally their loony base. I have not seen the country so divided since the last time the Democrats lost the presidency in 2000. This is what they must do to win. With weeks to the election they will likely ramp it up. They tried to make a 1967 Summer of violence happen but it just never worked out for them. What next? Stay away from crowds.

A subtle but important, at least to me and probably the umpire, take on this is that in calling the umpire a "thief", she wasn't just alleging competency, but actually impugning the integrity of the game. As such, a greater penalty might be warranted.

In McEnroe's famous "Chalk flew up" tirade, he was only alleging that the umpire got the call wrong, not that he was intentionally acting in his opponent's favor.

The Obama Age is over, and thinking you should get special treatment just based on the color of your skin and blaming everything on unfair prejudice and discrimination should be over too. She clearly should have been expelled with that conduct and yet they still let her play, so they kept on giving her special treatment.

And the U.S. media continues to talk about how horribly Williams was treated. "She was mistreated because she was black!" "She was mistreated because she was a woman!" "The referee was a racist misogynist!" "She didn't really cheat, coaching should be allowed in the Open even if it isn't!" What hogwash!!! She's a professional tennis player, she knows the rules.

This lady was a monumental embarrassment to the United States, and put all the worst aspects of the political correctness culture on parade.

And the Japanese winner was treated horribly. What an embarrassing indictment of America as it continues to slide down the list of nations. Let me be the first to say "Omedeto gozaimasu!" おめでとうございます (Congratulations.) Now you know where the Ugly American seen by other countries comes from. Wake up people.

Z: The lesson is don't lie to the FBI investigating criminal matters or you may be found guilty of a felony.

The usual sentence for a first-time offender is probation...

Bzzzt! Wrong again. James Comey prosecuted Martha Stewart all the way to a jail cell for lying to the FBI.

From none other than the NYT:

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At a news conference announcing the charges against Ms. Stewart, James B. Comey, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said, ''This criminal case is about lying -- lying to the F.B.I., lying to the S.E.C., lying to investors.'' Addressing a question that has long hovered over the investigation, he added, ''Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not for who she is, but because of what she did.''

And then Gen. Flynn has spent over $1M, selling his house to be saved from the ignominy of probation for lying to the FBI? Somehow I doubt it.

But Z reminds us that Papadopoulos' lying was a national security issue:

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...but Papadopoulos was given a prison sentence because the matter was, according to the court, of "profound national importance".

So "profound national importance" is only worth fourteen days in the hoosegow? It couldn't have been that profound or that important.

Don't forget, Papadopoulos was at one time given as the original reason for all the FBI counter intelligence investigation. But that excuse exceeded its shelf life long ago.

Jeez...out of town for a week, come back, and Zach is still pushing the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative. The democratic socialists NEED the narrative to keep their own carcasses out of jail....its all pure deflection.

peacelovewoodstock: Do you intend to suggest that Manafort, Flynn, and Papadopolous were convicted for anything remotely close to a link with the Russian government?

Flynn and Papadopoulos pleaded guilty, probably to avoid other charges. Flynn lied about discussing sanctions with the Russian. The lies told by Papadopoulos allowed a Russian operative to escape the U.S.

You're still trying to argue the Russians didn't hack Podesta and the DNC? Really? You do realize that Russia is engaging in cyberwarfare against open democracies around the world?

Jim: Still waiting for any evidence, any at all.

Start with the URL used to hack Podesta's account. Russian intelligence used a Bitly account, but didn't properly mask their identity. This allowed investigators to uncover that hack, and hundreds of other hacks that were part of a widespread campaign.

DrTorch: You said the Republicans, then you cite an issue with the DNC.

Good. We have established that the Russian hacked the DNC and Podesta, damaging to the Democratic campaign. We also know that Trump Jr. accepted a meeting that he was told was part of the Russian government's efforts to help the Trump campaign.

Zzzz:Start with the URL used to hack Podesta's account. Russian intelligence used a Bitly account, but didn't properly mask their identity blah, blah, blah.

Another fail, kiddiez. Y'all never learn.

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We've seen deliberately placed "Russian Fingerprints", efforts to forge perceived association to WikiLeaks, DNC breach claims discredited, How Guccifer 2.0 Used "Trump Opposition Research" like an identity card the day after it was cited by CrowdStrike executives in a Washington Post article, noted how he could only ever seem to hack the DNC, lacked syntactical traits of a Russian speaking English and has been shown to have operated from US timezones based on email timestamps, archive timestamps, Twitter activity and WordPress activity.

Crapulent: Which puts paid to virtually all your lies alluding to crimes being established whenever a plea is agreed.

We don't know if there were other crimes involved, but it is not atypical for a plea to be entered for a lesser crime when the person is a cooperating witness. Regardless, both Flynn and Papadopoulos have pleaded to lying about *contacts with Russian*, and have apparently been cooperating with investigators.

Still regurgitating the back of that cereal box, crackbot? We can all do that but being people of integrity, we realize that lying is also when you mislead and obstruct. Your one trick pony is acting like you're reciting reality when you're really just dishonestly cluttering up somebody else's space. Most of us would call that a condition.

If you were honest - which is the stretch of all stretches - you'd include that political leak strategy prior to all this fake Trump-Russia hoopla was rife all over official channels, that Clinton and/or the Dems were involved in the phony dossier, that apparently Comey perjured himself, that McCabe is being investigated by a grand jury, that the Clintons are also under investigation, and that's before we go back into the running culture of impropriety during the previous administration that preceded all this.

If you were honest you'd not alienate every reader here shitting all over every thread by repeating the most slanted, selective, and biased version of a fictitious reality you invented just to pleasure yourself.

Without a doubt, someone sent phishing e-mails to the DNC, and John Podesta. That is an indisputable fact at this point, we even have the e-mail sent to John Podesta. What is unknown is who sent these e-mails, what their intention was, and if they used them for political purposes during the election. Since there is no evidence connecting these phishing e-mails to Wikileaks, the DNC insider narrative is still entirely possible.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty and cooperated with the Special Counsel, which went in his favor.

Resulting in a sub-weak shit 14-day sentence, thus proving once and for all that Trump and Russia colluded like crazy to steal drunken, surly, criminal Hillary's Presidency, in the process imperiling the US at least as much as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Got it.

Actually, it was SecureWorks who had done the groundwork before the Podesta hack. The Russians had not always properly masked their accounts, which allowed SecureWorks and others to trace their activities to Russian intelligence. It's not a secret.

Zzzzatemypuppies: y'all still rely on the fallacious report from Crowdstrike.

Actually, it was SecureWorks who had done the groundwork before the Podesta hack. The Russians had not always properly masked their accounts, which allowed SecureWorks and others to trace their activities to Russian intelligence. It's not a secret.

Papadopoulos received a felony conviction with light sentence because he cooperated, which is standard practice.

Which is totally consistent with "profound national importance", right? The Rosenbergs were executed for far less. You keep replying to "It's only water on the carpet - no big deal!" with "Well, 4 ounces of water were spilled on the carpet, which resulted in wetness!". Way to be an obtuse fucking retard.

That's a silly argument. The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage that the court found resulted in the death to innocents. Nor did they cooperate with authorities. So, no. The Rosenbergs' crimes were not "far less" than those of Papadopoulos, who lied to the FBI, but then pleaded guilty and cooperated.

Bill Carson: "Groundwork" such as employing crack hackers who could launch "password" at Podesta's digital fortress?

It was a phishing attack, so it didn't matter how complex the password might have been.

Bill Carson: Yet another molehill to be cast as a mountain.

Russia is engaging in a widespread campaign of cyberwarfare against open democracies around the world, not just against the U.S. That they interfered in the U.S. election, that they illegally hacked into Democratic Party emails revealing internal deliberations and millions of dollars worth of voter research, that they have probed voter registration databases, that the U.S. President appears to be beholden to Putin, is a matter of serious concern for those who believe open democratic governance is worth preserving.

No matter how I say it I can't quite make the leap between the repeatbot's instantaneous, out-of-power patriotic concern for structural American issues on one hand and progressivism's usual anti-American screeds on the other.

Reminds me of the next rabid progressive finding equality of LGBT social outcome all over the Federalist papers or abortion "rights" directly written into the 1A.

Cyber. Warfare. In the prior political era of rampant security breaches and conflicts of interest and border-lowering and globalism. Who was it who had his or her entire private computer vacuumed in real time by a communist government?

But no. Password cracking some inconsequential turd in this profoundly lax clownshow establishment constitutes CYBER WARFARE because ELECTION INTERFERENCE when its candidate lost for completely obvious tactical errors on the campaign trail and no evidence of ELECTION INTERFERENCE have ever come to light.

Russia is engaging in a widespread campaign of cyberwarfare against open democracies around the world, not just against the U.S. That they interfered in the U.S. election, that they illegally hacked into Democratic Party emails revealing internal deliberations and millions of dollars worth of voter research, that they have probed voter registration databases, that the U.S. President appears to be beholden to Putin, is a matter of serious concern for those who believe open democratic governance is worth preserving.

Translation: "I didn't get my way politically, so I'll feign concern about shit I fully support when my side does it."

You keep replying to "It's only water on the carpet - no big deal!" with "Well, 4 ounces of water were spilled on the carpet, which resulted in wetness!". Way to be an obtuse fucking retard.

Again, your sense of scale is distorted: an embarrassingly tame 14-day sentence after 2 straight years of "The Russians are coming!!!" indicates that, despite your earnest concern-trolling regarding the imminent death of the Republic, it's all a bunch of wishful bullshit on the part of yourself and the rest of the "reality-based" community.

But Bill, up until repeatbot laid it all out for me, I simply had no idea that Podesta's email password conflated so molecularly with the DNC being one of the two major political parties in the United States.

In the United States. A major political party.

Why, the implications are earthshaking, Bill. Or uraniumservertarmacBenghazifakedossier-shaking, I forget.

Bill Carson: an embarrassingly tame 14-day sentence after 2 straight years of "The Russians are coming!!!" indicates that, despite your earnest concern-trolling regarding the imminent death of the Republic

You seem to think that Papadopoulos is the end of the investigation. Rather, he is just a bit player in the larger story. It's clear that Trump Jr. was more than willing to work with Russian agents. In any case, perhaps you are right, and Trump is innocent. But a lot of people have lied about their contacts with Russia, which makes it much harder to arrive at the truth. But that's why there are investigations, to serve justice.

Bill Carson: We've all already been killed by climate change and the repeal of 'net neutrality, remember?!?

Neither climate change nor net neutrality are existential threats to humanity. However, they are threats, just as cyberwarfare is a threat. That Republicans in the U.S. are looking the other way will allow foreign adversaries free rein. Other hostile countries will obviously follow suit.

Bill Carson: McCabe is going down, as are Comey and a few others before all of this is through.

If they are shown to have done something wrong by the proper review, then they should be held to account, either criminally or administratively, as appropriate. But that's why there are investigations, to serve justice.

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